Communications of the ACM
Robotic Solutions Inspired By Plants
EU-funded researchers are demonstrating revolutionary robotic techniques inspired by plants, featuring a 3D-printed trunk, leaves that sense the environment, and roots that grow and change direction.
Credit: CORDIS News
The European Union is funding a project that is using plant models to design a robotic solution. The PLANTOID project has developed a prototype based on the properties of plants, and the researchers believe their work could inspire a new generation of information and communications technology hardware and software.
The prototype demonstrates bending capabilities, with one root responding to input from sensors at its tip, and the other functional root demonstrates growth. The robot grows by building its own structure and penetrates the soil. The trunk houses a microcomputer and is connected to the roots, and the leaves include sensors that can assess environmental conditions, including temperature, humidity, gravity, touch, and chemical factors.
The researchers say plant-like robots could be used to detect and assess pollutant concentrations, to map and monitor conditions in terrestrial soils, to perform delicate surgeries, and to search for survivors after a disaster.
"Plants are very efficient in terms of their energy consumption during motion, and this suggests many approaches that are muscle-free and thus not necessarily animal-like for the world of robotics," says PLANTOID project coordinator Barbara Mazzolai.
From CORDIS News
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